On Sunday December 14th, 2008, I acted as tour guide to three men who were here from the Netherlands. Ton, Gerald, and Patrick were here for the past several weeks re-assembling the cap to Murphy’s Windmill. (A week before Thanksgiving, the cap from Murphy’s Windmill in Golden Gate Park had returned from the Netherlands where it had been repaired and restored as part of the Murphy’s Windmill Restoration Project. ) Yesterday was their last day in San Francisco, so despite the cold and rain, I gave them the ‘Grand Tour’ of the City. We drove around for over seven hours and saw what would otherwise take several days to see. We went to Twin Peaks, the Haight-Ashbury, Alamo Square, City Hall and the Civic Center, Market Street, South of Market to the Bay Bridge and over to Yerba Buena and Treasure Islands to view the new bridge span. Returning to the city, we went along the Embarcadero to Chinatown, up to Nob Hill, over to Russian Hill, then Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. We made our way in the pouring rain through the Presidio, went into its Officers Club, and circled through the immense and somber Presidio Cemetery. We passed the Palace of Fine Arts and then Crissy Field on our way to the Golden Gate Bridge, but before crossing over the Gate, we detoured to Fort Point and to our surprise the fort was open. We spent close to an hour walking through the rooms, corridors and stairwells inside the fort with torrential rain coming down outside. Crossing the red span in a downpour to the Marin Headlands, we visited Battery 129 and Hawk Hill, Point Bonita, Rodeo Beach and Tennessee Valley. Returning to the city, we meandered the wet streets of Pacific Heights back over to Nob Hill where we had drinks and a bite to eat (at the Big 4 Restaurant in the Huntington Hotel.) Night had fallen when we left the restaurant. We went inside and walked through Grace Cathedral and then I drove them back to where they were staying (near the windmill). On the way back, I showed them Lincoln Park and the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the De Young Museum and the new Academy of Science. The last thing I showed them was the lone Portal of the Past on the edge of Lloyd’s Lake in Golden Gate Park. I drove my van up on the curb with the bright lights on in order to illuminate this relic from 1906.
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